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Welcome to Brindlewood Bay, a peaceful New England village on the sea with picturesque views, cozy bookshops, and quaint B&Bs. It also has an unusually high murder rate, and that's where today's adventure comes in to play, as our party of sleuths attempt to untangle a mysterious death.
And, of course, our adventurers are all little old ladies. Let me introduce them:
* Joan as Louisa, resident gardener who loves getting her hands dirty and has seen absolutely every episode of MacGyver. Always carries her Swiss Army knife (the TSA hates her).
* Matt as Ludmilla, a retired powerlifter who has retired to a peaceful life in Brindlewood Bay. She keeps an indeterminate number of cats (and is never seen anywhere without at least one of them).
* Mitch as Bordy, a collector of all things, who has never seen a bauble she didn't want to add to her collection. She's also been getting mysterious messages on her answering machine lately, but it's probably nothing.
So let's dive into today's adventure, where our little old ladies talk about the first mystery they solved... and head to the whaling museum. Probably no one's going to get murdered. (Probably.)
If you enjoy our game, you can give it a try yourself! You can pick up the Brindlewood Bay rulebook from from The Gauntlet, including the Nephews in Peril supplement which includes the adventure we're playing here! The whole thing is a little bit Murder, She Wrote and a little bit X-Files, and a whole lot of roleplaying. We had a lot of fun with it, so check the game out!
Music from this episode is "Villainous Treachery" by Kevin MacLeod. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License.
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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:28
Hello and welcome. Welcome to another episode of Tavern Watch Plays. This week
0:33
we're playing Brindlewood Bay, a cozy little game set in the quaint New
0:40
England town of Brindlewood Bay, where we're a strange and mysterious number of
0:46
murders seem to happen here. It's it's it's a nice quaint tourist town, uh a
0:52
historic whailing town, and it's sort of reinvented itself as like quaint little cottages and vacation homes and uh
1:02
historic buildings and old bookshops and so it's it it cashes in on the tourism
1:08
thing. It's sort of historic boardwalk and uh seafront area.
1:14
Really a gorgeous little town. Who would not want to live in this amazing town? And uh
1:21
just don't don't talk about the the murder statistics here. It's just
1:26
not not good. Very peaceful. So I want to start by introducing our players
1:34
today. And I will start with Matt.
1:40
I am Lud Miller. I like cats.
1:48
Okay. Okay. If that's uh if that's what we thought. You told me to You didn't tell me if
1:53
we're doing the cozy little place thing and now we're not. Sorry. Um Well, I was just I was just Could you
1:59
tell us a little about Ludm Miller? And yeah, let's go ahead and do our sort of cozy little place scene. Think of this
2:04
as like a TV show and the intro credits are rolling and it like zooms in on you
2:11
and we see a little of what you're doing while it says um I'm first I'm doing is I'm feeding a
2:18
cat and then there are more cats and more cats. There are a lot of cats in this house. Um there is a painting of me
2:26
and a much shorter man uh my husband Gordon who unfortunately
2:31
passed away uh 20 years ago and since then I've been accumulating cats because
2:38
Gordon loved cats and I love cats and inside the inside the coat I literally
2:44
have like a pocket just for a cat and then I have a pocket for various cat related stuff like in this case I have a
2:51
little catnip mouse that I pull out and wave around for the cat and the cat attacks it and
2:57
then drags it into the coat and I'm like, "Oh, little cat. You little good cat." And yeah, that's basically I used
3:04
to be a powerlifter, but I got I failed to get into the Olympics in 1980 because
3:09
the Soviet Union wasn't invited uh due to the Afghanistan war. And so uh I
3:16
defected but rather you know when I defected and met my husband Gordon who sponsored me
3:22
uh into the United States I didn't continue to pursue powerlifting. I just got a job as a nurse and worked as a
3:30
nurse for like 30 years and then I like retired. I like mystery books because they are exciting
3:36
indeed. Every one of our characters here is a member of the Murder Mavens book club which uh meets once a week to in
3:44
the top floor of the Candlelight Books book sellers to uh discuss the latest murder novels. But uh they're
3:52
particularly fans of the Gold Crown Murder Mysteries by Robin Masterson. So
3:59
that's that's that's what brought you together in the first place, a lot of you. Um, so we're going to do a little
4:06
thing here where everyone has their house, their cozy little place, and you have things in your house that you can
4:13
uh maybe use to give yourself advantage on rolls. And we're going to come up with what you have in your house by asking everyone else here at the table
4:19
to say one item that they think you would have. And I'm going to go and then
4:25
we're going to go through the rest of our introductions like this. I'm go with uh Joan. What do you think um Ludma
4:32
might have in her house? H uh
4:39
it definitely got a bottle of that Felaway spray that um calms cats down
4:44
when they're stressed out. I It might be the version that'll calm humans down, too. I don't know.
4:53
Okay. What about you, Mitch? What do you think Ludm Miller might have? What What do I think Ludm Miller? Not
4:59
what I have. Not what you have. We're we're we're doing this role playing thing where we're we're talking about.
5:06
I think Ludm Miller would probably have um either a picture of cat or another
5:13
like, you know, a crochet cat. Crochet cat. You can't go wrong with a crochet cat. Oh, you know, knowing cats,
5:21
does the cat survive the other cats? That's the There are many crochet cats for my daughter.
5:28
Um, and Matt, you want to add another item to this pile of items that you have in your cozy little place?
5:34
Do you ever see the tool that people have that does like you can trim their nails, you can like groom them. It's
5:41
like it's like a multi-tool but for cats cuz we have one. And quite frankly, I
5:46
can't imagine having more than one cat without having this thing cuz it just
5:52
allows you to like, oh, they got a mat in their fur. Okay, I got this thing. I got little scissors. I got the big nail tripper chippies. Uh yeah. Um
6:00
so yeah, it's like a Swiss Army knife, but it's got a laser pointer cuz you know
6:05
that's absolutely that that makes perfect sense. Now let's
6:11
go to Joan. Could you introduce us to your character? I will be playing Louisa Margro. Uh
6:19
she's sort of an outdoors type. Love loves to garden. Um, she's probably in
6:26
her uh sun hat right now getting dirty, digging out some weeds.
6:34
Um, she's got she owns uh every episode of the MacGyver
6:42
show that was ever produced, even the new ones.
6:47
I That's That's a life choice for you. So, let's do the same thing. And uh Matt, what do you think Louisa would
6:54
have in her cozy little place? Duct tape. Absolutely.
7:01
That's That's kind of a no-brainer there. Uh and Mitch, what do you think?
7:10
One of those like like it's a digging tool, but it's like the circular one that's almost in the shape of like a you
7:16
know small pot. So like to cut up post digger. Yeah.
7:24
But like really used, huh? You You got to have your gardening
7:31
tools for, you know, definitely for gardening. Of course, that's what you're doing.
7:38
Absolutely. And so, we have our third player here, Mitch. Introduce your character.
7:45
Hello. Uh, my character's name is Bour. Uh Bordy likes to collect things. Um cuz
7:54
one time Bordy found this old rusty knife which uh I traded for a new fork
8:01
and then I traded that for a nice piece of paper and then I wrote a letter on that paper actually and the recipient of
8:07
that letter sent me a sticker sheet with their reply. It was a really lovely sticker sheet full of cat stickers. I
8:12
traded three of those stickers for oatmeal. That oatmeal sent me to the doctor. um whom I later married uh and
8:20
after he disappeared uh was left with a lot of money. So now I collect things
8:25
wherever I go because that old rusty knife where I am today. You never ever
8:31
know. Uh lookwise I have a very um
8:37
strong feeling that yesterday's fashion is tomorrow's fashion. So I'm always
8:42
wearing the clothes of yester year. Um, but I can never really pick out which yester year. So, it's just like five
8:49
different fashion styles at once. And it's going to work. And tomorrow you will see that because everyone's going
8:55
to be wearing the same stuff I am.
9:00
Okay. Okay. Well, so um I'm going to
9:06
start with you three. Are you not doing anything for Mitch's character?
9:11
Oh, right. We do. We do. Uh, yes. I was my brain
9:16
was running ahead of the rest of me. So, yes. What do we think is in Mitch's
9:21
character's cozy little place? Let's, uh, Joan, um, a bunch of those vintage marble
9:28
sets, like the, um, the cat's eye glass ones that you can't buy anymore that
9:34
sell for like super lot on eBay.
9:41
Like that? Yeah. You never know when you're going to need
9:46
some marbles. So, uh, yes. Matt, what do you think Brody has in her, uh, cozy
9:54
little place? A 1913, uh, Buffalo nickel.
10:00
Okay. Yes. So, good luck working that into the story.
10:06
It's worth a fair amount of money. Also, it's to be clear, Bordy.
10:13
Birdie. Like birdie but with an O. Okay.
10:20
Uh, and uh, Mitch, what do you do? You want to add something to this list?
10:25
Something you think you My cozy place? Um, I think I have an old
10:30
kind of a button that
10:44
Okay. Well, I want to start out by saying you three have solved a mystery
10:50
before and you never went you didn't come to Brindlewood Bay thinking, "Oh,
10:56
I'm going to solve mysteries." You came here to retire on the seaside. Yeah, but
11:01
maybe you've just read a few too many novels because you've stumbled into solving murder mysteries. And I would
11:08
like I would like the three of you to uh tell me what was the first murder
11:14
mystery you solved. Uh this happened just a couple months ago. And I'm going
11:19
to say one of you one of you starts out with what who the victim was. One of you
11:26
tells me about the investigation. And one of you tells me how you wrapped this up. Just kind of a little preamble to
11:35
our episode today. Uh, Matt, why don't you tell me about
11:41
how uh Ludmilla stumbled into some kind of horrible murder in town?
11:49
Took cats to vet. Vet office was trashed.
11:54
Vet was dead. He was a decent vet, Mr. Simmonson. Oh, Dr. Simmonson, I suppose.
12:01
Uh, the he was good with the cats and he was dead. He had been smashed. He was
12:07
very dead. Extremely like forklift falls off of mountain on top of you dead. But
12:13
there was no forklift. I I did not see a forklift. I was quite shocked.
12:20
So I actually said, "Oh no, because you know emotion. I was I was a little out
12:26
of control. I I may have actually said a swear word. I'm not sure. or poop is a
12:34
swear word here. I don't I don't know. Anyway, yes, it was very bad.
12:40
Uh, and Bordy, why don't you tell me how the three of you investigated this this
12:46
mystery? Well, I decided to investigate everything.
12:57
Investigating all of the shops around. I was investigating the reactions people. Um, I was mostly looking for
13:05
stuff in those shops while I was investigating. Um, but I was investigating everything else. Uh, Ludm
13:13
Miller, I believe, um, just kind of conveyed the emotional response of the
13:19
group to press. Well, I might add. Um, and then Louisa helped uh, you know,
13:28
calm down the cats and also asked about, you know, asked anyone else at the kind
13:34
of did the vet office investigation while I focused on everything else and Lud Miller conveyed the emotional
13:40
reaction. I love that we've appointed a 6 and 1/2t tall monosalabic Russian woman wearing
13:45
the equivalent of a spirit hood except that it's an actual bear.
13:50
She's the one going. It's very sad. He was smashed.
13:59
All right. Well, let's go to Louisa. How do you think you caught the killer?
14:04
Um, so we figured that the means of death was actually a cabinet
14:11
um that was pushed over onto this onto this fellow. Um but we were thrown off
14:18
for a while because the cabinet was empty. Um so whoever used it emptied it out,
14:25
took the stuff to their house and um we were we were able to look at the guest
14:32
list of who had come in that day and we sort of um broke into some houses until
14:38
we figured out who had the stuff in their house. is not breaking into a house if you knock on the door and say,
14:44
"Can we come in?" I just I feel like we have to That was I mean
14:51
to be fair, one of us did knock on the door while the other snuck around back and
14:57
Yes. So is not breaking in. Is not breaking in if we ask first. Even if they're not actually home, I'm sure if
15:03
we leave a note is not breaking in. They They know us. Well, you know, they
15:09
know us well enough. They'll let I know they'd let us.
15:14
Uh, okay. So, yes, you solved this crime. You managed to You turned over
15:20
everything to the sheriff's department. The associated uh narwells
15:26
were arrested and taken away. And wow, job done. What? Brindlewood Bay is now a
15:33
safer place. Uh, so you thought I'm going to ask
15:39
um which of you you're out celebrating
15:44
because you know, look, we've been reading these murder mysteries for so long and now we've had our own murder
15:50
mystery and this is, you know, this sleepy little town where occasionally
15:55
people get murdered is just uh, wow, we've did it. We've become the stars of our own of our own detective series. And
16:06
I'm going to ask which one of you thinks you would be most likely to maybe take a stroll on the beach. Maybe after the
16:11
celebration, you're walking home alone. Who thinks they might be I I definitely would be searching that
16:17
beach for bobbles. So, you've had this celebration. Maybe a
16:23
glass of wine. You know, you maybe got a little crazy and two glasses of wine. Oh, wow. That's
16:30
um so everyone's heading off. Oh dear. Everyone's heading off home. Uh
16:36
but Brody goes out and does a walk along the beach on the way home after this uh
16:42
strange murder celebration that you've been having. And as you're walking down distantly down
16:49
the beach, you see you you creep closer trying to stay out of sight. You see a
16:56
circle of people in dark cloaks
17:02
chanting, "Oh, what's going on?" And you can't make out the words, what
17:08
they're saying, but it seems like they're saying something in sort of a rhythmic way. And
17:17
you creep closer trying to trying to tell what they're saying in the distance. You can see this clearly under
17:23
the full moon, but then a shadow comes up from the water and
17:30
you for for just a moment you don't see the moon at all. For the moment, it's just the dark blackness of night
17:37
surrounds you and then it's then it's gone. You see the sky and the stars and the moon and you don't see any figures.
17:45
Nothing. Nothing is on the beach. You're alone.
17:51
Whoa. Uh, how far away were they?
17:58
Um, they were close enough that you could hear them, but uh not close enough. You could you
18:05
could hear them chanting. You could see they were they were shadowy figures in the distance. So,
18:12
you saw this. You went over to where they were and you there were footprints
18:17
in the ground. But even your keen searching eyes
18:23
couldn't see anything except this is some strange
18:29
mystery. This is beyond what you would have expected in your quaint and
18:35
definitely not murderous small town. And when you get home, there's a message
18:41
on your answering machine because you have I bet you have like an oldfashioned
18:46
answering machine with like a cassette tape in it. Uhhuh. And you pro maybe you may have a
18:52
collection of cassette tapes just lined up on the shelf. Uh you go home and there's a message
18:57
from a voice that you you don't know who this person is. It's
19:04
uh it's and they're telling you to go
19:10
follow the masks and you have no idea what this means.
19:16
Follow the masks. You have no idea what this means. But since then, since following your solving your first
19:22
mystery, you have occasionally gotten more messages from this person. always
19:28
asking you for something, giving you a hint or perhaps asking you something that uh
19:36
uh asking for something that you might leave at like a dead drop somewhere. and you've never seen them, but
19:43
sometimes they'll leave these messages and give you like these tiny cryptic clues as to something
19:51
something coming that you haven't put the pieces together, but you're sure something is
19:58
there. And as this new day dawn, as we head into what is definitely not going
20:04
to be a murderous scenario at all, it's a perfectly normal sunny day in Brindlewood Bay. You've gotten another
20:11
message that tells you to look for a scrimshaw
20:17
and to leave it in the usual place. And you're you're listening to this thinking, okay, this is we've got a
20:25
community college that has a a maritime history department. They probably have a whole collection of these things. We
20:30
have a museum that probably has a whole collection of these things. How am I supposed to You're this is going through
20:36
your head. And then it says the the mystery voice on the answering machine says, "You'll know it when you see it."
20:46
I am excited. This is this is one of the best messages I've gotten. This this is a particularly dramatic
20:54
one. So, you're all getting together for your
20:59
weekly mis meeting of the Murder Mavens mystery book club up on the up in the
21:05
Candlelight Book Sellers. You've been reading the latest book and uh but this is kind of you're you're doing kind of a
21:13
quick meeting this week because um it's fundraising night at the Brindlewood Bay
21:20
Whailing Museum. And this is this is really very exciting because
21:27
one of you is a great supporter of the Whailing Museum and has signed up to give annual donations to them ever since
21:34
they were for as long as you've been in Brindlewood Bay. I'm going to which which one of you thinks they are this
21:40
person? And I'm going to say it's going to be um Lud Miller or Louisa since uh Brody kind
21:49
of already has some stuff going on over here. and 40. I don't think
21:54
Yeah, I don't think I would be particularly interested in whaling unless they're like cats.
22:01
Like I I'm pretty focused on the cat thing. Yeah, probably. Um
22:07
probably I they took me out on the on the on one of the ships once
22:13
just as a as a favor. I got in some great fishing time. Learned a lot of
22:18
things for my novel. Uh, yes, they do have there's a historic whailing boat
22:24
that um that's docked on the seafront that is owned by the museum. It's not
22:31
it's a historic boat, so it's not in the best of shape. So, they don't usually take people anywhere with it. So, yes,
22:37
that was uh that was a significant favor. And so, you're
22:43
uh the three of you have decided to go together to the big fundraising night. It's a big party essentially at the
22:50
museum. Um, you come up to the museum, it's a it's kind of an unassuming building at the
22:57
end of a street, you know, sort of it's just a big square box without windows,
23:03
but they've they've tried to do it up in a fancy celebratory kind of way. um
23:09
where the outside is painted in murals of old whailing ships sailing the sea
23:14
and whales in the waves and it's it's all very cheerful. The intro uh the
23:20
entrance is kind of done up like an old it's it's got a tower like it's an old
23:26
lighthouse and a big banner hanging over
23:31
the front door says welcome to the museum. Uh there are a bunch of cars in
23:37
the parking lot. You do have a a view of the sea from here, but not
23:42
um not a whole lot and not from inside the building. It's kind of a a parking lot seaside view.
23:49
So So what is everyone up to? What do you want to do from here? I mean, I I
23:55
just generally kind of meander like, you know, in the in the same
24:01
direction as the rest of the party, but I sort of, you know, wander, kind of take a zigzag path or loopy path just to
24:07
see if I, you know, spot anything on the ground or little collectibles that I might, you know, find useful.
24:14
I lumber very methodically from display to display, reading them carefully and and slightly out loud because I English
24:20
is not my first language. And the whailing ship was first designed in its
24:26
for current most recent form in 1812 and stuff like that. And you know then I
24:32
would be like okay the boat was for killing whales. Seems kind of mean. And
24:37
he go to the next one. Spermaceti was an organ inside of Oh, so they were killing
24:43
them for oil inside their heads. Yeah, it's just like Avatar.
24:49
Um, what is that? A movie?
24:56
Oh, the the one with the cat people, I think. So,
25:02
yes, they sounds right people. They they plugged themselves into into things with their head tentacle, but otherwise they
25:08
were cat people and then they they stopped space whailing. I I didn't know that space whailing was
25:15
involved. But yeah, harpoons. Okay, now look at the harpoon
25:22
one. Now, harpoons were often used. This is a lot of detail.
25:29
Um, so the inside uh the lobby area of the museum has been decorated up uh
25:36
pretty fancy. It's there's a kind of uh bunting and glittery hangings along the
25:43
along the ceiling. like it's this uh attempted impression like you're under
25:49
the ocean and there are like paperiermâché whales hanging up there and it's just it's all done fancied
25:56
gussied up and there are waiters walking around with uh trays of little glasses
26:04
of wine and champagne and uh of course the
26:12
museum curator
26:17
H whose name I do not have in front of me. Uh George Pard, the museum owner, is
26:23
uh trying to uh going around shaking hands, trying to be cheerful, but he's
26:28
clearly very he's a little nervous and um you know, they need they need
26:34
this fundraiser. Louisa, you know, the museum is always in need of something. It's it's an expensive endeavor to keep
26:40
up this collection. The whailing ship is incredible, but it's also a muddy pit.
26:46
Uh, so this this is a an important an important event of the year. Um, so
26:53
Louisa, what are you up to in here? Um, I'm actually doing a little bit of
27:00
behind the scenes helping, just making sure that the the kitchen's running well and um
27:07
tending to all the little last minute fixes that that happen when you have way
27:13
more visitors than you expected. Yeah, that more visitors than you expected is great, but it's also very
27:20
stressful. There's um a catering truck around the back of the place uh that's
27:25
bringing in food. It has all of its neatly neatly dressed uh waiters going
27:31
around. Um there's also Dr. Burko, Dr. Katherine Burko, which um you might know
27:38
Katherine. She's a um so she's the curator. She's uh a very
27:46
uh accredited expert on 19th century industrial whaling, and she's pretty
27:52
overqualified for this job. But um she's
27:57
trying to stay in the shadows, but she's also trying to make sure that all of the exhibits are, you know, safe because now
28:04
you've got a bunch of philanthropists and curious onlookers just kind of in
28:10
the museum with food and drinks and she's she's a little anxious trying to run around and perhaps you're helping
28:16
her sort of Yeah, I already had to slice a rope back together after someone got a little too
28:22
enthusiastic touching something. Um, so yes, there's uh lectures going on in the
28:28
little auditorium and when you venture a little further into the museum and Louisa, you would know this, but uh at
28:37
the very heart of the museum is the skeleton of like a 50ft whale hanging
28:46
overhead with these sort of bleached, sunbleleached bones looming
28:52
under Uh, you know, it's it's like the ancient
28:58
corpse of a thing, but it's also like the the ceiling is painted like you're
29:03
underwater and there's kind of tensil hanging off the ceiling to make the whole place look more festive. Um, there
29:11
were exhibits all over the place, but it's kind of there's there's a bit of a morbid sense here that you've got all of
29:18
this glitz and glamour, but also whailing was uh it was bloody work.
29:25
And now we're we're here under this giant whale skeleton. H you can actually
29:32
see on one of the bones the uh the scar marks from this the the javelins the the
29:37
whailing spear there. Aaron, there's a thing right over there that talks about it.
29:44
Well, isn't that something, Baltazar? And you you see me lift a little ginger cat out just enough so it can look at
29:50
the skeleton and it starts going. It's like reaching for it. No, no, you
29:56
can't have It's too big. It's too big. Get back in there. Hello and goodbye, Bethl.
30:02
Uh, what did you do with the stickers of cats? You had a sheet of them, you said once
30:08
in the story. I never saw these stickers of cats. Why are they not here?
30:13
Uh, they're in my They're part of my collection. Where did you get them?
30:20
I got them uh as a reply from the letter I sent to my friend.
30:28
I'm watching you. Do you Do you want a sticker? I want many stickers.
30:35
I'll take you down to the dollar store tomorrow. They have a dollar store.
30:42
It's kind of on the edge of town. It's the the new sort of the newer part town. Do you have any idea how easy it is to get
30:48
cat toys in a dollar store? Yes, I do. Why was I not told of this?
30:55
I could have sworn I mentioned it when it went up. You actually, I believe, voted for it at the last city council meeting.
31:02
I don't go to city council meetings. Oh, wait. It did. That wasn't you? No, no, I did go. I did
31:08
go. Oh, okay. I I was actually trying to vote for the resolution to to close the shelter and
31:16
open a new kill shelter in its place, but that we solved the murder and I then
31:23
they just closed the the kill shelter because I said so. That was my one one thing I got.
31:29
You also voted for the the dollar store. I I wasn't paying attention if it it didn't involve cats.
31:36
That's politics. But it is good that we have the dollar store. Um, do we have to keep standing
31:42
under the whale or we could we move? Cuz quite frankly, I I feel like I'm standing in a place where if somebody
31:47
wanted to do something bad, they would use the whale and like in the book miss the book the crown the crown book where
31:54
the the dinosaur is dropped on top of the people and you know and the curator is killed with it. We don't we don't
32:01
want to be under that. Uh well, there is a gift shop. Uh there
32:07
is also a special uh exhibit just about Scrimshaw. And uh Louisa, you would know there's a
32:14
staff area that's maybe a little out of the way if you wanted some some quiet
32:19
time. Yeah, we can step in here because because the whole museum is pretty bustling. This is kind of a big
32:26
social event. The catering is pretty good. as good as you're going to get out
32:31
of the back of a catering truck. Um, so yes, there are people everywhere chatting.
32:37
I I know I was looking at the whale bones kind of to see if there were any markings outside of like, you know, the
32:44
the usual markings from harpoons and such. Um, but when Ludmilla pointed out
32:49
that it could be used to drop on me, I did step back a little bit and I I caught eye of that scrimshaw place and I
32:56
think I want to check that out as soon as I can. Uh well, if you want to head in that direction, of course, you know,
33:02
we could always have fun splitting the party. Everyone loves that.
33:08
Okay. Yep. I'm going to immediately see if there's
33:13
anything about Vikings and their and their boat cats because I know Vikings had cats on their boats.
33:19
Okay. Um but maybe whailing ships had cats to to catch mice. Um so I'm going to go.
33:25
Might be a scrimshaw of a cat. There might be, but I'm not going. We're splitting the party. I I can't go with
33:31
40. You You don't have to split the party if you don't want to. But I'm just
33:36
offering you this exciting opportunity if you do. Oh, I want to have to stick together.
33:42
Okay. Um I'll go to the gift shop because that's where I could probably find anything. There's probably cat stuff there.
33:49
Maybe there's a cat whailing. I mean, I hope not, but I mean, you could you could probably
33:54
find something for cats there. Uh, okay. And Louisa, which direction are you going in? Uh, yeah. I'm going to duck back into
34:02
the staff room for a bit. See if anybody needs something. Um, so I will start with a little order
34:10
here. Uh, in the staff area, it's kind of half office space, half store room.
34:15
There's a lot of, uh, filing cabinets. There's a lot of shelves with things that aren't on exhibit, things that are,
34:21
uh, uh, in storage rather than on display. Um, there's a big workt with
34:28
some bits and bobs that maybe are being mounted for display. Um, and right now
34:34
it as you go in, you bump into Catherine coming out looking a little frazzled
34:42
because this is Oh, I'm sorry, Louisa. If you if you need a moment like uh like
34:48
I do, um certainly take a take a stop in the staff room and and uh I I really
34:54
appreciate your help. So busy and these people don't all appreciate collection. I just came to see if anyone wants me to
35:01
smuggle in some of that crafty from the catering table. Oh, I I appreciate you. I think I I
35:10
really feel like I need to stay on my guard tonight to make sure no one spills
35:16
like a bottle of wine on any of these 18th century whale drop.
35:22
Yeah, maybe we should get more of those um those rope dividers. Keep people back a bit for next time.
35:28
You know, I wanted to put them everywhere. And then
35:33
cannot remember this guy's name. And I don't know why because his name is George. That's it's such a straightforward name. Um,
35:39
is it George Ballard? George No, no. Uh, George Pard is the museum owner. I I wanted to block off
35:47
all of the exhibit space and just have the have the event in the lobby and George said, "No, we had to show off all
35:53
of our collections. We can't block people off from the collections."
35:58
It's uh this is nerve-wracking. I understand. Art stolen from the
36:05
I am not on George's side. Uh, Louisa, anything else? There's the staff of the museum is actually um Katherine is the
36:13
only full-time staff member here. Uh, so it's Katherine and a lot of volunteers
36:19
mostly. Yeah, I'll see if they they need anything from the from the catering
36:24
table. And uh, yes, there are a couple of there are a couple of interns here
36:30
getting some credit for their community college courses. Um, oh yeah.
36:37
Uh, yes. With the crowds here tonight, it's been really busy just trying to do
36:43
just basic crowd control and keeping slightly tipsy patrons from uh, you
36:49
know, falling into Yeah. touching things, tripping into exhibits, all of
36:54
that. Uh, so let's go to uh, Lud Miller. You're looking for catch
37:03
related history here. As you were looking between the exhibits, you come
37:09
to um a gentleman who's sort of uh he's
37:14
almost holding court back in this corner where there are lots of old sketches and drawings of ships and life on ships. Uh
37:24
he is wearing he has this like perfect cornflour blue bow tie. It is like the
37:31
most perfect bow tie you have ever seen. It's just perfectly tied. He's wearing a
37:38
corduroy jacket and he has a little crowd of people here where he's talking about what life on the ships was like.
37:45
And you see they have all of these prints on display. But this this is just
37:50
these are just reproductions. I think it's really quite sad that the museum does not have more original artwork on
37:58
display because certainly the history here is very fascinating and just kind of on and on
38:05
like this. But he does have a small crowd of people who seem to be very interested in what he's talking about.
38:11
I'm going to like I guess I will just kind of like orbit them and like actually look at the things he's talking
38:17
about rather than himself. Uh so yes, there are sketches of like these look
38:23
like sketches that were maybe done by sailors, you know, uh sort of on the
38:29
hunt for whales. There's some downtime where you're not any whales going from
38:35
from uh place one to place uh place one to place two, I suppose. So uh sketches
38:41
of the decks of ships, sketches of ships, sketches of the ocean in the
38:46
distance. Um, I just, by the way, I looked this up. Tons of cats on ships.
38:52
Not even kidding. And there were like a lot of them. It makes sense. Getting us.
38:59
Here's a picture of Captain AJ Haley with his cat on RMS Empress, uh, 1920.
39:05
So, yeah, there tons of them. They're all over these freaking boats. Uh, especially whailing ships. Yeah, they
39:10
had cats. So, I find one of, you know, a ship's cat and I just look at it and I'm I'm happy because there's a cat. Uh,
39:17
I also listen to him talking about the display because it I noticed that they do just have them out and about and I
39:24
listen to the thing about them being repubs and I'm like, where are the actual Actually, I'll even turn to him and go, if these are reproductions,
39:31
do you have actual original ones? Well, I don't work here. I you see uh I
39:41
am with I am I am a professor at the Brindlewood Bay Community College and
39:49
actually for being a community college the it does have a pretty well-renowned
39:55
maritime history department which I think that's just common knowledge that's sort of a point of town pride is
40:01
this uh sort of mark of history that the community college carries forward. And
40:07
it is really it is just a little disappointing to see this collection has
40:12
so many reproductions. Well, you see this one here. This one here looks like an original. Yes, I think. And he
40:18
actually goes and looks at the one with the cat kind of peering over his glasses. You know, this is an original.
40:25
That is quite nice. You don't always see them preserving these little this sort of slice of life scene because there was
40:33
it's more than the excitement of fighting the waves or of slaughtering the whales. There is just all of the
40:41
dayto-day which is where you see something like the cats there to keep the the mice and pests off the ship.
40:49
This one is very interesting but yes a lot of these there are a number of reproductions here. Disappointing
40:54
number. Thank you. And he just he doesn't take a particular interest,
41:01
but he does kind of uh carry on sort of holding court here. Uh he's got some
41:07
sort of uh older residents of the town who may have money may be willing to donate who are kind of holding up their
41:15
noses because this is oh this is not what they thought it was. and uh but also some younger academics who may be
41:21
here from the college because he's here trying to impress or whatever else but
41:27
he carries on there. Um let's go around to Bord.
41:32
I'm investigating this scrimshaw place. What was Did you say it was like a a shop or stop or display?
41:40
It is a display. There's kind of a whole room dedicated to scrimshaw
41:47
which um are of course intricate little carvings on whale bone or other kinds of
41:54
bone. Most of them are, you know, there are fish, there are ships, there's uh
42:00
you see a piece of bone that's been carved, a large piece of bone that's carved into like a cribage board. Um,
42:08
all sorts of little little bits and bobs. Some of them have abstract shapes and symbols. Um,
42:15
and you're you're searching around here. What what in particular do you think you're looking for?
42:20
Um, I'm just kind of looking for something that, you know, speaks to me. Um, I'm I'm both investigating just kind
42:27
of out of general interest, but also like hoping that I I look at one of these um and it either it there's a
42:37
feeling there or if I see a mask on any of them, I'm going to kind of look
42:44
like a mask drawing or or one done. Okay. It's like, oh, this little piece of whale bone is wearing a mask. Okay.
42:51
Um, yep. That was that was what immediately came to mind when you said that.
42:57
Um, you know, I haven't been having y'all roll a lot of dice. I'm sorry for that. I'm going to say make a what the
43:04
game calls a meddling move to search for a clue. That means you're going to roll
43:09
2d6 and add your h let's add your reason to
43:16
it. Okay. Um, one of these is a little rubbery, so it might bounce.
43:24
It's a four, a three, and plus that one. So, eight total. Uh, so an eight is a success. And this
43:31
is just uh you're you're rolling your two, and you're So, a seven to a nine is
43:37
a success, but there's a complication. A 10 plus is a pure success, and a 12 plus
43:43
is a success with something a little extra. So,
43:48
uh, you're going around and you you see you're just sort of looking for something that like stands out to you
43:54
somehow, something that looks different, but then they're all there's just such a such a wide variety of these things. You
44:01
you kind of you finally go and you see one carved with the with a face on it.
44:07
You're not sure is it a mask, but it's it just catches your eye and you're wondering about getting could you get
44:15
it? steal it. Well, I'm going to say that's that's the
44:20
complication. You see it behind the glass, but it is locked. There are a
44:25
number of other people here. And it's not you can't just pick it up and pocket
44:30
it. Even though you do see something that's that's interesting, it's kind of
44:37
It strikes you as like a Greek inspired kind of mask, like that sort of
44:42
overexaggerated facial expression. H. Okay. Um,
44:49
I really I really I want it. Um, but it says, "Well, are there are there any other things that look like this in the
44:56
room that I notice or like I I want to like see if this is the only one that
45:01
looks like this?" Now that I've spotted this, I'm I'm looking for it more closely. Okay, I'm going to say no. At least
45:08
you're you're going through these things, but there's a lot of noise. There's a lot of people crowding around you. you do not see anything that grabs
45:15
your attention like this one based on, you know, the tiny cryptic hints you
45:21
have gotten. Um, but I'm going to say at this point, everyone hears kind of like
45:27
the the clinking of glass, you know, uh, everyone a toast a toast to the museum
45:33
that's kind of coming from the central room. Okay, before um before I leave
45:38
this room, I'm I'm going to go back to the spot where I saw the one with the like mask shape. I'm going to pull out
45:45
um just a little uh it's it's kind of like a coin. Like it looks like a coin,
45:50
but the face is like, you know, rubbed off and it's a little bent. Um I'm just going to pull it out and I'm going to
45:56
leave it on the floor right in front of the mask so I know that's the spot. Okay. Okay.
46:01
I can come back here and I will be so sure. Okay. So, back in the in everyone's sort
46:08
of gradually coming back into the middle of the li of the museum. Um, and the
46:16
waiters are handing out to make sure everyone has champagne. You have the
46:21
museum owner, George Pard, kind of standing in the middleish, but he's
46:27
um he's not particularly tall, so he's getting lost in the crowd, and he's
46:32
holding up his arms, trying to keep the attention going. Uh
46:37
and uh holding holding a drink. Next to him is um an older gentleman with a
46:44
smile who has his checkbook out and is writing. And uh
46:49
George is just Yes. Thank you. I want to everyone everyone please please uh I
46:57
want to give a generous thank you to to our great patron Mr. Cornelius Abselum.
47:06
A great philanthropist of this community. Thank you so much. And uh
47:12
Cornelius is there with kind of a a sort of watery smile. uh handing over this
47:19
check to uh to George. And uh now a toast everyone, you should have your
47:26
champagne uh for the future of the museum and the remembrance of the past
47:33
of Brindlewood Bay and other communities all up and down the New England coast.
47:38
And uh everyone everyone I I imagine everyone drinks and they're just sort of
47:44
polite clapping kind of thing going on. What are the three of you doing?
47:49
I've got a glass but I'm not drinking out of it cuz I don't drink alcohol. I will drink Lmillas.
47:56
There you go. Thank you. I mean back
48:01
Okay. But I don't drink so I will hand that. I I just don't drink alcohol period. It is
48:06
just not something I do. I mean, if you if you did not want that, there's probably also sparkling water or
48:12
something like that that you could get if you so desired. If somebody told me that. No one told me there was sparkling water. You won't
48:17
tell me things. I had you one. Thank you. I know you don't like the
48:23
No, Gordon. Gordon and I we did not do, but but you know, Bordy Bour got my the
48:29
one the alcohol one I thought was the only option. So, she's happy and I'm happy and you're happy. I have no idea
48:35
if you care at all. I'm happy to accept what you give. Thank you. I'm the designated driver. So,
48:42
yes, you don't want me to drive. I will be going around making sure that people with full glasses or perhaps the
48:49
empty glasses stay particularly away from the more easily damaged um
48:56
exhibits. If some of the excitement is dying down, uh some people are starting to leave. It
49:02
seems like the museum uh that uh Cornelius gave this donation that has
49:07
really kind of hit the goals the museum was trying to reach. And it's it's quieting down here. There's some whale
49:15
song coming out over the museum sound system, which is starting to sound a little weird over the kind of uh
49:23
cheerful conversation. as people start to uh some people are heading out, some
49:29
the crowds are thinning and um I'm going to say that Louisa, you spot uh being a
49:36
friend of the museum. You spot uh I'm being real bad at names today, guys.
49:42
Edgar Nickerson, who is a graduate student who has um deep family ties to
49:50
Brindlewood Bay. He's from an old Brindlewood Bay family. uh gone off to
49:55
do graduate studies, but he's back in town for the summer to uh doing some
50:00
study at the community college and here he's been volunteering at the museum uh
50:06
with their with their collection. Um what's he doing? Uh well, he sees you.
50:13
He's been uh you know, he's here for the science of things, but he's actually been doing mostly picking up glasses as
50:20
people have just had their drink and like set them down. There are weight staff here who are
50:26
trying to do the the same, but Edgar has kind of found himself. You know what I'm doing?
50:32
Probably probably uh because people just take their god they set them anywhere. Uh it's like no display case is not that
50:39
is not a place to leave your to leave your champagne glass. Thank you. Um but
50:45
people are filing out, things are calming down. There's kind of a rush of little bits of trash and deritus that
50:51
they've left behind that uh some of the some of the volunteers are sort of rushing around to pick up. And uh but
50:58
it's quieting down and Edgar comes over to you and says, "Oh, it's so nice to see you, Louisa. I'm so glad that not
51:06
everyone here is just uh getting drunk and stealing spilling champagne on 18th
51:14
century books. It's It's fine. It's going to be fine. Yeah, Catherine, I think was about to
51:20
have a heart attack. Uh yes, she's uh she's so she's so
51:26
committed to our to the collection we have here. Uh, yes, we don't have a very large collection, but everything is important
51:34
and I obviously the museum needs money to keep it going, but I do not think everyone
51:42
here is as much of a fan of uh maritime history. It does not necessarily see its
51:49
importance as much as uh some of us do. So, how are the studies going? Are you
51:55
are you are you studying that sort of thing or you going for one of those fancy science degrees?
52:02
Oh, I'm in on the history side really. I mean I have done some study of oceanography. It you know it it helps
52:08
you uh knowing about the sea and the creatures that live in it make you
52:14
better able to understand uh the sailors and the fishermen and everyone who went
52:20
out on the ocean. All of these things tie together. So, well, I do know a little, but I I'm afraid I I know you're
52:27
more interested in that side. At least I think you are. Uh,
52:32
but uh yes, but I' I've been studying the history side more and particularly
52:38
the the history of Brindlewood Bay is quite fascinating. Um, I mean, I'm
52:44
sure you're kind of new to town. Perhaps you could uh enlighten me. Well, I mean, you know about the Deep Reaver,
52:51
of course. Who? Oh, the Deep Reaver. It is an ancient
52:57
ship that was uh sent out from Brindlewood Bay in uh
53:04
it was one of the last whailing ships, but it came back with a very few survivors. the and all of them a little
53:14
they had they had grand stories of creatures they had found out there but few of them made it back home and most
53:19
of it's been relegated to mysteries. It's one of the most uh famous maritime
53:25
mysteries of the area was the uh the deep reaver going out onto the sea and
53:31
encountering monstrous serpents and creatures coming up from the deep. It is so interesting
53:38
the tales of the sea that come back but the deep reaver was from Bindle
53:44
Brindlewood Bay. It went out to it went out from this port and it came back to it. Uh it is such it is an intriguing
53:52
mystery and uh you know actually one of these galleries here has they have
53:59
reclaimed wood from the deep river itself as part of the flooring. It's
54:04
It's really magnificent to look at. Which room? Are we in earshot of all this?
54:11
Uh, yes. I mean, all of you can take place in this if you want to. Okay. Cuz I'll be quieting down enough that you
54:16
can overhear. Yes. Because like at this point, I feel like um Well, I I was actually going to
54:23
interject and say, "Do you have anything from the ship?" But I guess you just answered that question, huh?
54:29
Well, well, I want to go check that out. Or actually, no, I'm going to I'm going to ask you to, you know, tell me a
54:35
little bit more about um the I'm going to kind of interject myself for the conversation. Be like, uh what was that
54:41
about mystery and some wood from uh an old creepy ship here?
54:47
Well, I creepy. It's the stories call it creepy, but you know, they came back
54:53
with stories of strange beasts and an it's said they came back with a very
54:58
unusual whale with with tentacle like No, it was very large, but
55:05
it was said to have tentacle like almost legs. I think I think they must have
55:10
caught some sort of great squid. It's But you know how caught a whale with a squid stuck in its
55:16
mouth. Whales. Oh, I heard that can happen. I heard that can happen.
55:23
You said there was some wood. Uh yes. Part of the ship. Uh the ship is long long gone. I mean it it was uh
55:31
Which room was that in? Uh well, and he takes you to kind of a side room off of the room with the whale
55:37
skeleton hanging over it. Um there are lots of exhibits, you know, that are
55:43
just on sort of the history of whaling. There are, you know, pictures of whales,
55:49
sketches of whales being drawn up onto ships and which are kind of horrifying
55:54
visages. And um yes, it's a it's a wooden floor here. And you can see it's
56:02
kind of um the planks do look quite old. They've and Edgar points them out. All
56:09
of these have been uh were recovered and restored and they're of course they're under uh protective um they have some
56:16
sealant to keep them safe even though feet are uh I'm a little I'm a little
56:22
torn on this because it's not really good for them to be stepped on but also it's amazing to be able to experience
56:28
them like this here almost as though you are on the deep reaver in this room with
56:34
all of these some of these drawings and he'll go and like point out uh a small
56:40
exhibit um with little sketches from sailors like a sailor's life at sea.
56:47
This drawing Oh, sorry. Sorry. This drawing right here said to have been done by a sailor on the deep
56:53
reaver. It shows a picture of a whale. It's a light sketch. A whale devouring a
57:00
sailor. Do you mean squid? And it's devouring. It's not devouring a squid. Well,
57:07
you know, long days on the sea that they would they would draw any little thing. They're they're all trying to keep
57:13
themselves keep their minds busy and and uh think on things. So, you get some
57:18
fantastical things people have drawn. And so, yes, there is this little sketch
57:24
of a whale uh eating a sailor. And does does anyone want to examine this?
57:31
I mean, I'm looking at it. I'm not going to touch it. Uh yeah. Uh, give me a
57:38
give me a a meddling ro move to examine it, which is just your usual 2d6 and add
57:46
your reason to it. Okay, five and one is six plus reason is seven.
57:52
Okay, that is a success. You peer closely at it. You lean close to it's
57:57
behind glass. You lean really close and it's it's a light sketch. It's the ink
58:03
has faded over time, but as you look really closely, it's like, okay, this is
58:08
it's clearly the shape of a whale. It certainly seems to be eating a sailor.
58:13
This whale definitely has the eye of a human. It's not that's not a whale eye.
58:18
That's a human eye that is looking out at you as it eats this sailor.
58:23
Is it a whale sized human eye? Like does it look very small as well or is it just
58:29
look like a normal whale eye but with human characteristics instead of whale characteristics?
58:34
It's it's a it's a normal it's like the size of what a whale eye would be. So in
58:40
scale with the rest of the whale, but it's a it's a very human eye and like the eyelashes and the
58:48
eyelids. Yeah. As you're as you're looking at this, Edgar says, "Oh, excuse me. I I have
58:54
something important I have to do." and leaves you to uh examining this. So, I figure either he had a nightmare or he
59:00
was really bored and was like, I just wish some whale would just eat me so I could be done with this job.
59:08
I think sea madness took him. I think they there's definitely that too much sun. I think some one day a sailor was bit by
59:16
a whale and contracted whale canthropy and then could turn into a whale and eat
59:23
people when the moon was full and then they would come during the full moon and
59:28
they would rise up out of the water and block the moon and they would eat people. Whoa. Hey, hold up. Hold up. I'm sorry.
59:35
Uh, a lot of that sounded well kind of like what you usually say, but um, what about that part about blocking out the
59:41
moon? Well, cuz it was so big. Even the whales are big. Oh, okay. That's probably not related to
59:47
this thing that happened to me the other night. Did you see a giant whale? Uh, I Yeah, I thought I I kind of forgot
59:55
to tell you. Um, I when I was looking at the beach the other day and I saw like
1:00:01
this weird circle of something. It looked like people in cloaks chanting and then I looked out
1:00:08
under the water. Um, and there was something there and then everything went
1:00:14
dark and then the moon came back and they were gone. Um, and I think I went back inside after that. So, by the other day, do you mean that
1:00:21
night when you glasses of wine? This was also a few weeks ago. So, it's it's been a little time, but you know,
1:00:28
not far too little time to have, you know, more terrible things happening. Other day, other week. Yeah, it was it
1:00:35
was it was that night. It was that was when I won went out onto the beach. I think you guys went Yes. I had to feed the cats.
1:00:41
Yeah. You had seems like you had our glasses of wine since we don't drink.
1:00:49
Yeah. I guess so. I mean, maybe you wouldn't know then. This this isn't
1:00:55
something that usually happens uh to you when you drink, but maybe I wonder if
1:01:01
Edgar Edwin Edward I wonder if he Yeah, I wonder if Edwin uh you know has
1:01:08
experienced this. What? Walking on the beach and the moon goes dark. Not just the moon, everything. There was
1:01:14
no moon. I don't even know if I know where the sand and the water like started and ended. It was really dark.
1:01:20
Maybe a blackout. Was there a blackout that night? a blackout like of the water. Do ships do that?
1:01:27
No, like the power and then like a cloud over the moon. It gets really dark. I I guess it could have been that. I was
1:01:34
actually like if it were a giant whale though that would have made more sense I think like a floating whale though cuz
1:01:40
it like you know everything would Have you been watching one of those those new Japanese television shows that
1:01:46
all the kids are raging about? Yes. Yeah. A little too much wine. a little
1:01:52
too much TV. So, as you're standing here having this conversation over this exhibit, you hear
1:01:58
a scream and the small number of people still in the museum or there's some
1:02:04
frantic activity going on. Uh, sound like a woman's scream, a man scream. Um, wow, that's a good question. I'm
1:02:11
going to say it's a woman's scream. And, uh, you turn behind you looking back towards the lobby and he's been
1:02:18
murdered. My is dead. And uh with that, we're going to cut to
1:02:25
a commercial break. And uh that that is our first episode of Brindlewood Bay. We
1:02:31
will be back next week to see what is going on in this quaint, perfectly
1:02:38
normal seaside town.
1:02:51
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